Mark the date on your calendars because the ‘Game of Thrones’ series finale date has been revealed along with the showrunners teasing the hard work that went into the last episode…
‘Game of Thrones’ will officially come to an end on Sunday night, May 19.
That is the date for the ‘Game of Thrones’ series finale in the sixth and final episode of season 8, which kicks off just over a month earlier on April 14 on HBO.
It’s expected that the series finale of ‘Game of Thrones’ will be one of the most watched episodes of television in recent history, especially considering that the show airs on HBO, which is a premium cable network. Despite sitting behind a paywall, ‘Game of Thrones’ has routinely pulled in more than 20 million viewers per episode across multiple formats, making it the most watched series in HBO history.
If those are the average numbers for ‘Game of Thrones’, then the series finale should be off the charts, which is why longtime showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are putting everything into this last episode that will end a journey for them that started more than 11 years ago.
Both showrunners know the pressure that comes along with a series finale of this magnitude.
Some series like ‘Lost’ and ‘The Sopranos’ have been critically praised and award winning shows with finale episodes that didn’t exactly end with a rousing chorus of cheers from the audience despite both shows being carried by a beloved and loyal fanbase throughout their individual runs on television.
That’s why Benioff and Weiss took it upon themselves to direct the ‘Game of Thrones’ series finale because all the pressure would then fall into their laps to deliver.
“We want people to love it,” Weiss said when speaking to EW. “It matters a lot to us. We’ve spent 11 years doing this. We also know no matter what we do, even if it’s the optimal version, that a certain number of people will hate the best of all possible versions. There is no version where everybody says, ‘I have to admit, I agree with every other person on the planet that this is the perfect way to do this’ — that’s an impossible reality that doesn’t exist.
“I’m hoping for the Breaking Bad [finale] argument where it’s like, ‘Is that an A or an A+?’”
‘Breaking Bad’ definitely had one of the better finales in recent history with other shows like ‘The Shield’ going out on top with one last episode that really capped off the entire series. Then there were shows like ‘Dexter’, which carried a cult fanbase throughout its run but the final episode left viewers confused and somewhat angry with how the story ultimately ended.
In many ways, the showrunners behind ‘Game of Thrones’ have been preparing for this moment since the first day of filming because in such an epic story, the ending is always going to matter to the people so invested in this series.
“From the beginning we’ve talked about how the show would end. A good story isn’t a good story if you have a bad ending. Of course we worry,” Benioff added.
Obviously the ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners can’t offer much information about what to expect in these final six episodes but the cast from the show have promised everything from shock, awe, crying and satisfaction when describing the last episode.
It will all begin to unfold on April 14 when the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ starts before a rapid fire six episode run ends with the last episode airing on May 19 on HBO.
